While everyone’s attention has been justifiably focused on whether or
not we will be going to war in Syria, a pair of important fiscal
deadlines has been quietly sneaking up on us. On September 30, the
continuing resolution (CR) currently funding the government will expire,
and by the middle of October, the federal government will once again
reach its legal borrowing limit.

Word from the Hill suggests that Republican leaders will offer a
short-term CR that funds the government through December 15 at a cost of
$988 billion. This resolution would keep most of the sequester intact,
but would still increase appropriations by roughly $21 billion relative
to the previous CR. Still, it is roughly $70 billion less than President
Obama requested. That’s what counts as fiscal discipline these days.

And, in an exceptionally cynical maneuver, the leadership plans to use a
parliamentary vehicle to allow House members to take yet another
symbolic vote to defund Obamacare. The maneuver, last used in 2011,
would have the House vote on two items, the continuing resolution to
fund the government and a separate “enrollment correction” that would
defund Obamacare. The Senate would have to vote on both items, but if it
passes the CR while rejecting the Obamacare addendum, as it almost
certainly will, the CR would go on to the president with funding for the
health-care law intact. That is exactly what happened in 2011. The
Senate rejected the resolution to defund Obamacare, 53–47, and then went
on to pass the “clean” CR, 81–19.

The House vote to defund Obamacare would be as meaningless as any of
the 40 previous such votes. In fact, it’s worse than that. It’s
dishonest — an attempt to fool voters into believing that the House has
voted to defund the law, when it really has done no such thing. If
congressional Republicans lack the courage to actually do something
about Obamacare, they should just go ahead and pass a CR without the
subterfuge.

Then again, simply maintaining the sequester can be counted as a
victory of sorts. After all, some Republicans, such as Representatives
Buck McKeon (Calif.) and Marsha Blackburn (Tenn.) have reportedly
offered to trade support for President Obama’s Syrian intervention for
eliminating the sequester cuts to defense. Now that’s a winning formula —
more spending and a war.

On the debt ceiling, Majority Leader Eric Cantor suggested Tuesday
that the House might tie an increase to a one-year delay in Obamacare,
but the GOP’s exact plans remain unclear. House Speaker John Boehner has
spoken vaguely about demanding further budget cuts in exchange for
agreeing to raise the debt limit. In the past he has called for a dollar
in cuts in exchange for each dollar in additional debt.

Regardless, President Obama is insisting that he will not negotiate
on the issue. Given Republican fecklessness on the CR question, it is
hard to see them winning a confrontation over the debt limit. At the
very least one would expect to see them coalescing around specific
proposals for, say, entitlement reform. So far, one looks in vain.

In the short run, no issue is as important as war and peace. Lives as
well as treasure hang in the balance. But for the long-term future of
this country, preventing the looming fiscal crisis may matter even more.

True, the budget deficit has fallen significantly this year. The
economic recovery, anemic as it is, has nonetheless generated additional
revenue, and the sequester actually did hold down the growth in
spending. As a result, the deficit so far this fiscal year is roughly
$750 billion. That’s $411 billion less than last year, but still
represents 23 cents out of every dollar we spend.

Moreover, declining deficits are just a temporary phenomenon.
According to the Congressional Budget Office, by 2016, deficits will be
rising again. By 2022, they will approach $900 billion annually. Our
national debt remains above 100 percent of GDP. The unfunded liabilities
of Social Security and Medicare heap between $67 and $112 trillion on
top of that.

Nearly everyone has remarked on the incomprehensibility of the Obama
administration’s Syria policy. Yet, on the equally important issue of
our fiscal future, the GOP is looking every bit as inept.